Saturday, April 9, 2011

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer also known as the Killer Clown who committed the rape and murder of 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Twenty-six of Gacy's victims were buried in the crawlspace of his home, three others elsewhere on his property and four victims were discarded in a nearby river.

Gacy became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his charitable services at fundraising events, parades and children's parties where he would dress as "Pogo the Clown," a character he devised himself.

Identified victims (age in parentheses)

Only twenty-five of Gacy's victims were ever identified. By the time of Gacy's trial, twenty-two victims had been identified. In March 1980, Dr. Robert Stein was able to identify two further bodies unearthed from Gacy's crawl space as those of Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino; two teenage friends who were reported missing on October 25, 1976. One further unidentified victim was eventually identified in 1986 as Timothy McCoy, Gacy's first victim.

Timothy McCoy (15) January 3, 1972

John Butkovitch (17) July 29, 1975

Darrell Sampson (18) April 6, 1976

Randall Reffett (15) May 14, 1976

Samuel Stapleton (14) May 14, 1976

Michael Bonnin (17) June 3, 1976

William Carroll (16) June 13, 1976

Rick Johnston (17) August 6, 1976

Kenneth Parker (16) October 25, 1976

Robert Winch (16) November 10, 1977

Tommy Boling (20) November 18, 1977

David Talsma (19) December 9, 1977

William Kindred (19) February 16, 1978

Timothy O' Rourke (20) June 16–23, 1978

Frank Landingin (19) November 4, 1978

James Mazzara (21) November 24, 1978

Robert Piest (15) December 11, 1978

Michael Marino (14) October 25, 1976

Gregory Godzik (17) December 12, 1976

John Szyc (19) January 20, 1977

Jon Prestidge (20) March 15, 1977

Matthew Bowman (19) July 5, 1977

Robert Gilroy (18) September 15, 1977

John Mowery (19) September 25, 1977

Russell Nelson (21) October 17, 1977

Unidentified victims

Eight victims remain unidentified: seven from Gacy's crawl space and one from beneath his barbecue pit. Experts used the skulls of the unidentified victims to create facial reconstructions.Based upon Gacy's confession, where the victims were buried in his crawl space relative to Gacy's identified victims, and forensic analysis, police were able to determine the most likely dates when his unidentified victims were killed.